Street-Smarts or Academia??

Which matters more when it comes to building a successful business?

Through my Success Is A System podcast, and decades of global business and networking I’ve met extraordinary people at both ends of the spectrum.

Some have several degrees, remarkable academic intelligence and world-class expertise in their chosen fields.

I’ve also interviewed people who received very little, if any formal education, including Gypsy billionaire Alfie Best, who was taken out of school before exams age, and whose wealth has been reported at $1.2 billion, and centi-millionaire entrepreneurs such as Charlie Mullins, Kevin Byrne and Neville Wright.

Education can provide knowledge, discipline and an invaluable foundation.

But I sometimes wonder whether it can also become a restriction:

...teaching people to seek the correct answer, follow an established path and avoid failure,
...when entrepreneurship frequently demands the opposite.

I say that as someone awarded an honorary doctorate in education, but also as someone brought up in poverty, who went bankrupt and subsequently built a business operating across 20 countries.

I’ve experienced the value of both.

Academia can teach you what is known.

Street smarts can teach you what to do when none of the accepted answers work.

The strongest entrepreneurs probably combine the two,

but if you had to weight them, which matters more?

Vote below, and tell me why in the comments.

What matters most when building a successful business?

70% Street / 30% academia

50/50 balance

30% Street / 70% Academia

100% of one... and please state why

3 votes